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Opinion
Noah Feldman

Public Impeachment Hearings Will Start With a Bang

William Taylor is an ideal witness for House Democrats to begin with: an honest, unbiased person with detailed recollections.

Witness for the prosecution 

Witness for the prosecution 

Photographer: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

It’s no surprise that Ambassador William Taylor is expected to be the first witness to testify when the House of Representatives opens public impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump next week.

First, he’s an astoundingly credible witness — straight from central casting, as Trump himself likes to say about some of his appointees. As a matter of prosecutorial strategy, that makes him an ideal first witness for House Democrats to lay out their case for the first time to the public.